Dempsey To-day.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

Dempsey To-day.

Great Draw in " the Smalls.'' Touring U.S.A. Backblocks.

(By BILL HENRY.)

You've beer wondering what Jack Dempsey has been doing. The answer is ——lie's been doing right well.

Suffering from two diseases, the itch to lie on the go all the time, and the fashionable shortage of ready cash, Dempsey has found out how to cure both troubles with a single remedy.

He's playing the tank towns in the south-west and making a lot more money than he did promoting the BaerSchmeling light. No great feat, of course, since he didn't make any money whatever out of that venture.

But Dempsey, the bridegroom, following a hasty honeymoon in Los Angeles, suddenly hit the trail for parts unknown. Less than three weeks later he returned, brido and all, beaming—and richer by a considerable sum, reputed 011 good authority to be around 2ii,000 dollars.

Dempsey, whose popularity with the ordinary "man has never been equalled among sports celebrities, has been cashin;; in on that popularity in the regions where they've never had a chance to see him.

He has always been a big town man. His fights have been in the big cities and his personal and newsrcel appearances have been most frequent in the big town theatre, while the folk in the country have never had a chance to see the champion of whom they've heard so much.

So Jack, through an experienced theatrical manager, "tours the provinces," occasionally hitting cities of considerable size, but swinging off the beaten track into hamlets miles from the railroads.

What does lie do? He referees boxing und wrestling matches —that's all.

He eats anything and everything—and lots of both. Which wouldn't be so bad if ho didn't order for "Angie," as lie calls his bride, and then sit there and make her put it away. Dcmpsey's manager, an old-time theatrical man by the name of Maurice Cain, is philosophical about the whole business. "I never know when Jack is going to want to hit the trail," he says. "I kind of keep in touch with things so that I know where there might be something doing, because I know some morning Jack is going to bust into my room and ask me, 'Where can we show tomorrow ?'" Cain's only regret is that Dcmpsey's many interests, including his hotel in Pos Angeles, some property in Mexico, his promotional activities in the interests of Max Baer, and so on, keep him from staying on the road all the time. "I could keep him booked for 305 days in the year and we could make as much money all the time as we made on this last trip," he says.

Dempsey intimates that as soon as Baer has finished his motion picture venture he's going to start out again with the Livermore larruper as an added attraction, "meeting all comers" in the fashion of John L. Sullivan.

The former champion's appearances arc regular public holidays. The farmers drive in from miles around. He is met by the Mayor and all the big shots of the town. He gets no sleep. He's on the dead run all the time, and he loves it.

His bride? She loves it, too. Doing without sleep, getting up all hours of the night. Bouncing around in auto.mobilcs on country roads. Sitting with people she never heard of and always being good-natured and affable, the former Hannah Williams, with her wild mop of yellow hair, is having the time of her life.